ExtremeTech - Will Vista Run Your Games?

February 9th, 2007, 17:19

Thanks to Lucky Day for pointing out an article a little off the beaten path for us at ExtremeTech. Will Vista Run Your Games takes a look at the compatibility and performance of a number of titles under Vista, including Oblivion, Dark Messiah, NWN, Gothic 3 and MMOs including WoW, Guild Wars and Vanguard.More information.

From what I've been hearing there is a major performance decrease in most titles. Another worrying fact is that the 'Games for Windows' validation scheme requires combatibility with the XBox controller! (no more RTS?) I will do with Vista what I did with XP. I will install it once the first Vista-only game I want to get comes out (for XP that was Thief 3).

I think the real problem here is that the market lacks a competing operating system. Linux is still too small and Macs too expensive.

And on the subject of "competing operating system", if you're thinking of sticking with XP, you'd better upgrade soon. I'm getting a new system built at the moment, and after searching around online, it's getting very difficult to find any place that even offers XP as an option. And the guys as the computer shop I go to are saying odds are good that inside of six months, you won't be able to buy XP at all. Unlike in previous years, you won't have a choice between a 9x vs NT flavor (or XP vs 2000). This time around, Vista is all MS is offering.

I have to assume that XP will still be available for those of us that build OEM systems, so my company will still use it for the security systems we build, but if you're wanting XP at home, MS won't be giving you any alternatives this time around.

Interesting article, and optimisitic on the whole. I won't be upgrading for a long while though, unless I'm forced to. My system is less than a year old and plays everything I need it to play, so hopefully Vista is not going to be a necessity until upgrading everything else also becomes one.

The related article on upgrade vs clean install of Vista over Xp is good as well.

Vista

February 9th, 2007, 21:45

Well after running the Beta and now Vista Home premium retail. I really like all the features and extra diagnostics and apps you get. And i wouldnt go back to XP. I may have lost up 5% performance from beta drivers. But most everything runs fine. It takes a few days for vista to learn your most used programs to cache into system ram. I turned off indexed search. your milage may very.
What i have been playing…
Gothic 3.. runs fine, but increased cache to high under details. smoother than xp
BF2142.. runs fine.
Tribes Vengeance.. same
Quake 4.. same

Ok, great-- so most of the games start up and run. Oh goodie. I'd hope so. Now what the reader wants to know is HOW WELL do they run. This information was not given in the article. It should have included benchmarked frames/second.

But really, does any of this matter. It's not like the consumer has much of a choice in the matter. Linux, Apple, or Vista…..gee, what choices. I'm betting directX could have been added to winXP but then no gamer would have given Microsoft hundreds of additional dollars for Vista.

Originally Posted by Yates1968
Ok, great-- so most of the games start up and run. Oh goodie. I'd hope so. Now what the reader wants to know is HOW WELL do they run. This information was not given in the article. It should have included benchmarked frames/second.

Well, from all the articles that I have seen recently, it seems like the general consensus at the moment is that no one can really tell yet whether the performance drop that you are getting with Vista is the fault of Vista or the lack of quality drivers. I guess we'll have to wait and see until AMD/ATI and nVidia get their act together. The current "winner" (under Vista and only if you exclude the 8800 cards obviously) is AMD/ATI while nVidia is catching a lot of flak for its crappy beta drivers (they have promised monthly new Vista drivers from now on in response to the debacle).